Top alcohol makers have been sitting on the sidelines of a cannabis beverage boom, watching brands in the fast-growing category like Cann and Wynk make deals with beer and booze distributors, and gain valuable space on liquor store shelves.
Now some alcohol companies, seeing their sales falter, are laying the groundwork to potentially enter the lucrative but risky market, a dozen founders of cannabis brands, ingredients suppliers and drinks manufacturers told Reuters.
Drinks containing THC, the mood-altering ingredient in marijuana, are restricted to licensed dispensaries in 24 U.S. states where recreational use of pot is legal. But small amounts of THC can also be extracted from hemp, a crop that’s related to marijuana but is legal federally. Beverages containing THC derived from hemp can be sold in many liquor shops, convenience stores and supermarkets.
That’s where Big Alcohol sees opportunity, despite some companies having been burned by past cannabis investments.
Corona brewer Constellation Brands has been internally researching hemp-based cannabis drinks to weigh its next steps, a source familiar with the company’s thinking said.
Absolut vodka distiller Pernod Ricard has met with Brez, maker of drinks with THC derived from hemp, as recently as last month to discuss a possible investment, Brez’s founder Aaron Nosbisch said.
“They did not invest now but are circling,” Nosbisch said.
Pernod declined to comment on the meeting. Constellation Brands said it does not comment on rumors and speculation.
Alcohol makers are still suffering a hangover following America’s pandemic drinking binge, when sales spiked as cash-flush consumers splurged on pricey bottles of liquor for their homes, and then rushed back to bars when lockdown restrictions lifted. Alcohol sales have been falling ever since as inflation and interest rates rose and wallets became stretched.
The companies also now face growing warnings from public health authorities who say drinking even small amounts of alcohol is associated with at least seven types of cancer.
Overall U.S. beer volumes fell nearly 6% through May of this year, according to the Beer Institute. Volumes of spirits and wine sold in the same time period have declined by 5.6% and 9%, respectively, according to the Wine & Spirits Wholesalers of America.
In a sign of tumult in the industry, the CEO of the world’s biggest alcohol maker, Diageo, stepped down last week as the company struggles to revive growth.
But hemp-based drinks are expanding fast. The market for drinks infused with THC from hemp is projected to top $1 billion in sales this year, according to market research firm Euromonitor, and climb past $4 billion in 2028.
Molson Coors CEO Gavin Hattersley told Reuters in January he’d be naive to say THC beverages aren’t having an effect “at least in a small way.”
Tilray Brands, the fourth-largest U.S. craft brewer with brands including Montauk and Shock Top, is selling its new hemp-derived THC seltzers through its beer distributors such as United Distributors in Georgia, executives told Reuters in an interview. The company’s THC drinks are for sale in 13 states.
“Theres not a real leader thats taken ahold of the (market) so far, and thats what we look to do,” Tilray’s CEO Irwin Simon told Reuters earlier this year.
Others, including Heineken’s Lagunitas brand and Pabst Blue Ribbon, the fifth-largest U.S. brewer, have lent their names to THC seltzers for sale in dispensaries in California. Lagunitas is looking to grow distribution of its THC seltzer, potentially using hemp, to other states, a representative from Cannacraft, its ingredient supplier, said.
A spokesperson for Lagunitas said it has no immediate plans to expand, but monitors market development and looks for opportunities as consumer tastes and regulations change.
Boston Beer, the maker of Sam Adams, is one of the brewers with the clearest path to eventually enter the U.S. cannabis drinks market although it has not provided a time frame for doing so.
The company is already selling its Teapot brand of THC-infused tea in Canada where weed is legal, and in the last year tested a potential U.S. version made from THC derived from hemp.
To test the reformulated product, a panel of trained sensory experts sampled Teapot with both THC from hemp and marijuana, and could not taste a difference, said the company’s head of cannabis, Paul Weaver.
“This is a source of growth for our organization, flat out,” Weaver said.
CAUTIOUS MOVES
Big Alcohol is treading carefully in cannabis drinks because state and federal regulations have shifted, and could change again, said five executives at ingredients suppliers and THC beverage brands.
California, which has legal weed, banned hemp-based drinks last year to try to prevent children from consuming them. Other states have introduced special taxes or restricted sales, ambiguity that has held alcohol companies back from entering the market.
Sen. Mitch McConnell, who helped first legalize hemp in 2018 to support farmers in his home state of Kentucky, in July introduced a provision in a government spending bill that could ban intoxicating products using the plant.
McConnell wrote in an op-ed published in the Louisville Courier Journal on July 17 that his efforts are aimed at keeping THC gummies that look like familiar candies out of the hands of children.
He did not provide comment beyond the op-ed.
Big brewers have been burned by past cannabis investments.
In 2022, the biggest U.S. brewer Anheuser-Busch inBev exited a deal with Tilray to research cannabis drinks in Canada. The same year, Molson Coors shuttered its U.S. business selling beverages infused with CBD, a compound in marijuana and hemp that does not have psychoactive effects, citing an uncertain regulatory environment.
Constellation Brands restructured its investment in Canadian cannabis company Canopy Growth last year after poor sales.
Now, however, hemp-based THC drinks are sold widely. Beyond beer’s declining sales, brewers face an additional squeeze from tariffs, which threaten to push up prices for imported drinks, and Hispanic consumers, who are staying home due to fears of U.S. immigration enforcement.
HIGH MARGINS
Liquor stores are embracing the buzzy beverages to boost their margins as the drinks, typically more expensive than a six-pack of beer, start to outsell other types of alcohol.
Jon Halper, CEO of Minnesota liquor store chain Top Ten Liquors, told Reuters in June that THC beverages now make up 15% of his business after the company introduced them two years ago. By next year, they could grow to rival wine, currently in the mid twenty percent of his sales, he said.
Thedrinks take shelf space mostly from beer because they are in coolers, Halper said. The margins on cannabis beverages are higher than those for beer and spirits, helping his firm offset softening alcohol sales.
Charleston, South Carolina-based Southern Horizon Logistics, a sister company of Budweiser distributor Southern Crown Partners, is now selling more hemp-based drinks than wine and spirits, said Justin Ashby, the company’s chief administrative officer.
Ryan Moses, CEO of Nashville, Tennessee-based beer, wine and spirits distributor Best Brands, said that growth from THC-infused drinks has helped offset flat and declining alcohol sales. Instead of possible layoffs, Moses has been able to re-allocate employees to the new category.
“It could be as big as the other categories five to 10 years from now,” Moses said.
Consumers like Josh Goldberg, 39, of Lindenhurst, New York, are also trading out beer and tequila for THC seltzers. Goldberg made the switch almost two years ago, and hasn’t had a drink since.
“It replaces the physical act of drinking with drinking something else,” Goldberg said.
Halper, the owner of Minnesota liquor stores, said the customers buying THC-infused drinks tend to skew female and over the age of 35.
“The soccer mom has really embraced the category in a big way,” Halper said.
Jessica DiNapoli and Emma Rumney, Reuters
Nestled in forests around the world, a gentle army of giant wooden trolls want to show humans how to live better without destroying the planet.The Danish recycle artist Thomas Dambo and his team have created 170 troll sculptures from discarded materials such as wooden pallets, old furniture and wine barrels.Twelve years after he started the “Trail of a Thousand Trolls” project, his sculptures can be found in more than 20 countries and 21 U.S. states. Each year Dambo and his team make about 25 new trolls, which stand up to 40 feet (12 meters) tall.“I believe that we can make anything out of anything,” said Dambo, speaking from his farm outside Copenhagen. “We are drowning in trash. But we also know that one man’s trash is another man’s treasure.”An installation of six sculptures called “Trolls Save the Humans” is on display at Filoli, a historic estate with 650 acres of forests and gardens in Woodside, California, about 30 miles (50 kilometers) south of San Francisco.“They bring us back to be connected to the earth and to nature,” said Jeannette Weederman, who was visiting Filoli with her son in July.Dambo’s trolls each have their own personality and story. At Filoli, the troll Ibbi Pip builds birdhouses, Rosa Sunfinger plants flowers and Kamma Can makes jewelry from people’s garbage.“Each of them has a story to tell,” said Filoli CEO Kara Newport. “It inspires people to think of their own stories, what kind of creatures might live in their woods and make that connection to living beings in nature.”Dambo’s trolls don’t like humans because they waste nature’s resources and pollute the planet. The mythical creatures have a long-term perspective because they live for thousands of years and have witnessed the destructive force of human civilizations.But the six young trolls at Filoli have a more optimistic view of human nature. They believe they can teach people how to protect the environment.“They want to save the humans. So they do this by teaching them how to be better humans be humans that don’t destroy nature,” said Dambo, 45, a poet and former hip-hop artist. “They hope to save them from being eaten by the older trolls.”Dambo’s trolls are hidden in forests, mountains, jungles and grasslands throughout Europe and North America as well as countries such as Australia, Chile and South Korea. Most were built with local materials and assembled on-site by his team of craftsmen and artists with help from local volunteers.“My exhibition now has four and a half million visitors a year globally, and it’s all made out of trash together with volunteers,” said Dambo. “That is such a huge proof of concept of why we should not throw things out, but why we should recycle it.”
Terry Chea, Associated Press
At the new Tesla Diner in Hollywood, a retro-futuristic drive-in, you can catch a short film lasting about 30 minutesthe typical length of a charging session at a Superchargerwhile you plug in your car. You can also get lunch (on the menu: a Tesla burger with electric sauce) while you use one of the 80 chargers on site.
Its not the only attempt to reinvent the gas station in the age of electric cars. A startup called Rove opened a charging center last year that includes a lounge where drivers can pull out their laptops and catch up on work. Ionna, a coalition formed by automakers, is building Rechargery sites that also include lounges and coffee. The concept is simple: If it takes longer to charge an EV than to pump gas, gas stations need to become a better place to hang out.
But this probably isnt the future of EV chargingor only a small part of it. Elon Musk has said that he wants to build a network of new diners if the Hollywood location is a success. (Dont hold your breath: It took seven years for Tesla to build the one that just opened.) It could be helpful as an interim solution. But most EV charging will ultimately look different.
First, faster charging is on the horizon. In China, BYD is rolling out EVs with batteries designed to charge in five or six minutes, and building a network of ultra-fast chargers to support the vehicles. Solid-state batteries, under development now, will also enable fast charging when they eventually come to market. If faster-charging battery technology becomes widespread, the typical gas station model wouldnt have to change.
Its more likely, though, that gas stations will become less and less important, as charging becomes embedded everywhere else. Already, around 80% to 90% of EV drivers in the U.S. charge at home most of the time. Its more convenient than going out of your way to a charging station. Its cheaper. Its also better for your cars batteryand the electric gridto charge slowly, over hours rather than minutes. (New tech may help batteries degrade less with fast charging, but the power demand from chargers is still a challenge for the grid.)
For EV owners who live in apartments, shared chargers in garages are becoming more common, so they also have the option to charge at night. Curbside chargers on streets are also beginning to roll out in some cities.
If drivers plugged in at work, and slowly charged during the day, the network of cars could help store extra solar power without the need to build as much large-scale battery storage infrastructure.
And when someone needs a fast charge, that can happen at the places they already go. Some stores have had EV chargers for years, and more retailers keep rolling them out. Starbucks is building chargers at some stores. Fast food chains from Dunkin’ to Chick-fil-A have started adding chargers at some locations. Walmart plans to install chargers at thousands of its stores.
Cars spend 95% of their time parked. And unlike gas cars, EVs don’t need supervision while they’re refueling, so they can take advantage of that unused time. Instead of creating entertainment for new charging stations, maybe we just need to keep adding more chargers to the places where cars already park.
An artificial intelligence agenda that started coalescing on the podcasts of Silicon Valley billionaires is now being forged into U.S. policy as President Donald Trump leans on the ideas of the tech figures who backed his election campaign.Trump on Wednesday is planning to reveal an “AI Action Plan” he ordered after returning to the White House in January. He gave his tech advisers six months to come up with new AI policies after revoking President Joe Biden’s signature AI guardrails on his first day in office.The unveiling is co-hosted by the bipartisan Hill and Valley Forum and the All-In Podcast, a business and technology show hosted by four tech investors and entrepreneurs who include Trump’s AI czar, David Sacks.The plan and related executive orders are expected to include some familiar tech lobby pitches. That includes accelerating the sale of AI technology abroad and making it easier to construct the energy-hungry data center buildings that are needed to form and run AI products, according to a person briefed on Wednesday’s event who was not authorized to speak publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.It might also include some of the AI culture war preoccupations of the circle of venture capitalists who endorsed Trump last year.
Blocking ‘woke AI’ from tech contractors
Countering the liberal bias they see in AI chatbots such as ChatGPT or Google’s Gemini has long been a rallying point for the tech industry’s loudest Trump backers.Sacks, a former PayPal executive and now Trump’s top AI adviser, has been criticizing “woke AI” for more than a year, fueled by Google’s February 2024 rollout of an AI image generator that, when asked to show an American Founding Father, created pictures of Black, Latino and Native American men.“The AI’s incapable of giving you accurate answers because it’s been so programmed with diversity and inclusion,” Sacks said at the time. Google quickly fixed its tool, but the “Black George Washington” moment remained a parable for the problem of AI’s perceived political bias, taken up by X owner Elon Musk, venture capitalist Marc Andreessen, Vice President JD Vance and Republican lawmakers.The administration’s latest push against “woke AI” comes a week after the Pentagon announced new $200 million contracts with four leading AI companies, including Google, to address “critical national security challenges.”Also receiving one of the contracts was Musk’s xAI, which has been pitched as an alternative to “woke AI” companies. The company has faced its own challenges: Earlier this month, xAI had to scramble to remove posts made by its Grok chatbot that made antisemitic comments and praised Adolf Hitler.
Streamlining AI data center permits
Trump has paired AI’s need for huge amounts of electricity with his own push to tap into U.S. energy sources, including gas, coal and nuclear.“Everything we aspire to and hope for means the demand and supply of energy in America has to go up,” said Michael Kratsios, the director of the White House’s Office of Science and Technology Policy, in a video posted Tuesday.Many tech giants are already well on their way toward building new data centers in the U.S. and around the world. OpenAI announced this week that it has switched on the first phase of a massive data center complex in Abilene, Texas, part of an Oracle-backed project known as Stargate that Trump promoted earlier this year. Amazon, Microsoft, Meta and xAI also have major projects underway.The tech industry has pushed for easier permitting rules to get their computing facilities connected to power, but the AI building boom has also contributed to spiking demand for fossil fuel production that will contribute to global warming.United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Tuesday called on the world’s major tech firms to power data centers completely with renewables by 2030.“A typical AI data center eats up as much electricity as 100,000 homes,” Guterres said. “By 2030, data centers could consume as much electricity as all of Japan does today.”
A new approach to AI exports?
It’s long been White House policy under Republican and Democratic administrations to curtail certain technology exports to China and other adversaries on national security grounds.But much of the tech industry argued that Biden went too far at the end of his term in trying to restrict the exports of specialized AI computer chips to more than 100 other countries, including close allies.Part of the Biden administration’s motivation was to stop China from acquiring coveted AI chips in third-party locations such as Southeast Asia or the Middle East, but critics said the measures would end up encouraging more countries to turn to China’s fast-growing AI industry instead of the U.S. as their technology supplier.It remains to be seen how the Trump administration aims to accelerate the export of U.S.-made AI technologies while countering China’s AI ambitions. California chipmakers Nvidia and AMD both announced last week that they won approval from the Trump administration to sell to China some of their advanced computer chips used to develop artificial intelligence.AMD CEO Lisa Su is among the guests planning to attend Trump’s event Wednesday.
Who benefits from Trump’s AI action plan
There are sharp debates on how to regulate AI, even among the influential venture capitalists who have been debating it on their favorite medium: the podcast.While some Trump backers, particularly Andreessen, have advocated an “accelerationist” approach that aims to speed up AI advancement with minimal regulation, Sacks has described himself as taking a middle road of techno-realism.“Technology is going to happen. Trying to stop it is like ordering the tides to stop. If we don’t do it, somebody else will,” Sacks said on the All-In podcast.On Tuesday, 95 groups including labor unions, parent groups, environmental justice organizations and privacy advocates signed a resolution opposing Trump’s embrace of industry-driven AI policy and calling for a “People’s AI Action Plan” that would “deliver first and foremost for the American people.”Amba Kak, co-executive director of the AI Now Institute, which helped lead the effort, said the coalition expects Trump’s plan to come “straight from Big Tech’s mouth.”“Every time we say, ‘What about our jobs, our air, water, our children?’ they’re going to say, ‘But what about China?'” she said in a call with reporters Tuesday. She said Americans should reject the White House’s argument that the industry is overregulated and fight to preserve “baseline protections for the public” as AI technology advances.
Associated Press writer Seung Min Kim in Washington contributed to this report.
Matt O’Brien and Ali Swenson, Associated Press
Its been said that online dating killed the meet cute. Now, as people struggle with dating app burnout, some are supposedly resorting to stealing mens lunches for a chance at creating their own.
In a now-viral post, one TikTok user claims shes heard of single women nipping into Sweetgreen locations in Midtown Manhattan during the workweek and stealing finance bros salads for lunch. She explained that they will then look up the name on the order on LinkedIn and message something along the lines of Hey, oh my God. So sorry, I grabbed your salad. Let me just make it up to you and buy you a new one.
@nicoleee461 Its rough out here #nyc #nycdating #dating original sound – Nicole Or
As the caption of the video reads: Its rough out here. Even Sweetgreen felt the need to comment on the state of dating in 2025. Guys please this is really stressing me out, the salad chains official TikTok account commented.
No one in the comments admitted to using the tactic themselves, but they didnt hold back from sharing their thoughts. Hey! all of that sounds insane! one person commented. Hear me out, what if you went up to them, another suggested.
Whether the story is true or not, it speaks to a broader issue with modern dating. A 2024 Forbes survey found that more than 75% of Gen Zers are burned out on dating apps like Hinge, Tinder, and Bumble. Despite the amount of time spent on the apps, those surveyed said they dont feel as if theyre able to find a genuine connection.
Now desperate times are calling for desperate measures. Why cant [guys] just come up to us at a bar? the TikTok user who revealed the salad-stealing caper questioned in her video. Why is it getting to this point?
A 2023 study found that almost 50% of men ages 18 to 25 have never made the first move and approached a woman romantically in person. Fear of rejection and fear of social consequences were the two most commonly cited reasons why. As one man commented on the original TikTok video, But have you been a man in NYC who tries to talk to a girl at a bar?
While it might not be the meet cute they had in mind, at the very least the TikTok shows people are keen to put themselves out there. Or, next time your lunch goes missing, make sure to check whos been viewing your LinkedIn profile.
Its not every day that U.S. nuclear facilities, the Department for Education, and governments across Europe and the Middle East are breached in a single hack. But then again, the vulnerability identified in Microsofts document collaboration tool, SharePoint, this weekend isnt your ordinary issue. It has found a chink in the armor of one of the most widely used suites of software across the world. Microsoft holds a two-thirds market share in the business productivity space.
Microsoft disclosed the vulnerability in a blog post over the weekend, clarifying that the issue only affected on-premises SharePoint servers. These are locally hosted instances of the collaboration tool, rather than the more broadly used SharePoint Online system in Microsoft 365. The company rolled out updates to plug the hole in security, which it said customers should apply [. . .] immediately to ensure they are protected.
Dozens of large organizations are known to have already been affected, including U.S. and international governments, and were hacked through the vulnerability. The breach has left some wondering why the reaction has been so muted, given the high-profile targets.
Darren Guccione, CEO and cofounder of Keeper Security, notes that although Microsoft 365s cloud-based services are unaffected, many critical sectorsincluding government, legal, and financial institutionsstill depend on older or hybrid SharePoint setups. These systems, he says, often lack the visibility, access control and agility needed to respond quickly with security updates.
Some cybersecurity experts say the response so far hasnt reflected the seriousness of the threat. Alan Woodward, a cybersecurity professor at the University of Surrey, points out that the issue impacts on-premise installations rather than Microsoft-hosted ones. As a result, he explains, Microsofts role is limited to releasing a fix, leaving the rest up to organizations themselves. The company, he says, has essentially told users: Over to you if you operate and maintain your own servers instance of SharePoint. (Microsoft did not immediately respond to Fast Company‘s request to comment.)
Those servers are often held offline because they are used to store sensitive data, including in the delivery of government services, which isn’t trusted to be stored in cloud environments. The awkward part of the story is that there are still several hundred thousand share points on premises, Woodward says. It could be a double-whammy if its not handled properly.
Woodward says hes been struck by the lack of urgency in the broader IT communitys responseincluding from Microsoft itself. Given the severity of the vulnerability, he expected the company to be far more vocal in alerting its technical user base. Microsoft, he says, should have been shouting about it. Meanwhile, both the U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) and U.K. National Cyber Security Center (NCSC) have issued warnings about the risks of the vulnerability.
Other experts are more sympathetic to Microsofts situation. I have some sympathy for all parties here, says Craig Clark, director of Clark & Company Information Services, a cybersecurity advisor. Threats are evolving at such a rate that its almost impossible to keep up.
Clark does admit that Microsoft needs to be more dynamic in how it issues its advisories and remember that many security teams are small and perhaps more needs to be done to keep people better informed, he says. But the relationship goes both ways. For their part, security teams need the resources to ensure that patching is seen as more than just a nice to have, he says.
One of Clarks key concerns is how quickly attackers are now able to weaponize newly discovered vulnerabilitiessomething he attributes to rapid advancements in technology, particularly AI. He warns that threat actors are increasingly leveraging these tools to accelerate attacks, which will likely make incidents like this more frequent. Microsoft has already confirmed that Chinese state-sponsored hackers have exploited the flaw.
Fixing the problem long-term will be more complex, experts say. Clark advises layering security measures, isolating critical systems, and automating patching wherever possible. Ultimately, he says, organizations need to move away from the patch when we can. Still, what works in theory often falls short in practicewhich is why such vulnerabilities continue to surface.
Global shares rallied on Wednesday, with Tokyo’s benchmark Nikkei 225 index gaining 3.5% after Japan and the U.S. announced a deal on President Donald Trump’s tariffs.France’s CAC 40 added 1.4% in early trading to 7,854.75, while Germany’s DAX gained 0.9% to 24,260.62. Britain’s FTSE 100 rose 0.6% to 9,075.46. The future for the S&P 500 gained 0.4% while that for the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 0.5%.The tariff agreement as announced calls for a 15% U.S. import duty on goods from Japan, apart from certain products such as steel and aluminum that are subject to much higher tariffs. That’s down from the 25% Trump had said would kick in on Aug. 1 if a deal was not reached.“This Deal will create Hundreds of Thousands of Jobs There has never been anything like it,” Trump posted on Truth Social, noting that Japan was also investing “at my direction” $550 billion into the U.S. He said Japan would “open” its economy to American autos and rice.Japan’s benchmark Nikkei 225 surged as much as 3.7%, closing at 41,171.32.Hong Kong’s Hang Seng jumped 1.6% to 25,538.07, while the Shanghai Composite index was little changed, gaining less than 0.1% to 3,582.30.Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 edged up 0.7% to 8,737.20 and the Kospi in South Korea edged 0.4% higher to 3,183.77.“President Trump has signed two trade deals this week with the Philippines and Japan which is likely to keep market sentiment propped up despite deals with the likes of the EU and South Korea remaining elusive, for now at least,” Tim Waterer, chief market analyst at Kohle Capital Markets, said in a report.There was a chorus of no comments from the Japanese automakers, despite the latest announcement, including Toyota Motor Corp., Honda Motor Co and Nissan Motor Corp.Japanese companies tend to be cautious about their public reactions, and some business officials have privately remarked in off-record comments that they hesitate to say anything because Trump keeps changing his mind.The Japan Automobile Manufacturers’ Association also said it had no comment, noting there was no official statement yet. Japan’s Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba welcomed the agreement as beneficial to both sides.Toyota stock jumped 14% in Tokyo trading, while Honda was up more than 11% and Nissan added 8%. In other sectors, Nippon Steel, which is acquiring U.S. Steel, rose 2.7% while video game maker and significant exporter Nintendo Co. added 0.7%. Sony Group surged 4.3%.But Takeshi Niinami, chairman of the Japan Association of Corporate Executives, which groups about 1,600 top executives, issued a note of caution about the nation having to be resilient and pushing free trade, while welcoming the tariff deal.“I hope this U.S.-Japan tariff deal can work as a starting point to further strengthen U.S.-Japan relations,” he said.He noted the U.S. policy of putting America first was unlikely to change, and that meant Japan, too, must make policy adjustments, such as making an aggressive push in artificial intelligence.Trump has also said that he reached a trade agreement with the Philippines following a meeting Tuesday at the White House, that will see the U.S. slightly drop its tariff rate for the Philippines without paying import taxes for what it sells there.On Tuesday, the S&P 500 added 0.1% to Monday’s all-time high. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.4%, while the Nasdaq slipped 0.4%.Also early Wednesday, U.S. benchmark crude oil lost 23 cents to $65.08 a barrel. Brent crude, the international standard fell 21 cents to $68.38 a barrel.The U.S. dollar fell to 146.38 Japanese yen from 146.64 yen. The euro cost $1.1736, down from $1.1754.
Yuri Kageyama, AP Business Writer
A Trenta Starbucks is no longer cutting it. The latest coffee trend has people ordering their iced lattes by the bucket.
Earlier this year, independent coffee shops started going viral on TikTok for serving 34-ounce iced lattes in plastic buckets. POV: You live in the same era as coffee buckets, one coffee shop posted on TikTok. Ok well see you soon I guess, one person commented. Id be on the toilet for days, another wrote.
@wickedsoutherncoffee Not a want. A need. #CoffeeTok #fyp #salemct #coffeeshop #connecticut original sound – Country Night
While its unclear where the trend originated, coffee shops in Colorado, Ohio, Massachusetts, and Connecticut have since begun offering their own versions of the quadruple-shot beverage. The New York Times spoke to Dulce Vida, a Mexican-inspired coffee shop in Tulsa, Oklahoma, where a La Cubeta, priced at $14 with add-ons, now accounts for more than 30% of orders since it debuted last month.
@michelletaylor887 Giant coffee BUCKET! #coffeeshop @Common Grounds #CapCut original sound – ShellRNTaylor
TJ’s Burritos, a Connecticut-based casual coffeehouse and Mexican restaurant, started serving coffee by the bucket in late May; it sold out during the first weekend. Now TJs Burritos sells at least 1,000 buckets per week (sometimes 200 buckets per day!), owner Tricia Martin told CT Insider.
Alaina Roberto, owner of Monroe’s Last Drop Coffee Shop, dropped her version of the viral coffee bucket in late June. “It seems like it’s a thing right now,” Roberto told CT Insider. “It’s a bucket summer.
Of course, like everything else, coffee trends come and go. Earlier this year, cloud coffee (a twist on an Americano made with coconut water) had its viral moment. Then who could forget the dalgona coffee trend that had TikTok in a choke hold back in 2020.
While the novelty of drinking your morning cup of coffee from a plastic bucket is likely driving the trend, Snaxshots Andrea Hernández suggests it may be reflective of a broader shift in attitudes toward caffeine. Were kind of experiencing that sort of backlash from what we were trying to do, like, less caffeine, more mindfulness, more meditation, less palpitations, she told The Times.
Rather than paying attention to wellness gurus who claim coffee first thing in the morning disrupts cortisol levels, or giving in to Big Matcha, the pendulum has swung back to mainlining caffeine by the bucketload.
Also, considering a regular-size oat cap is pushing $10 with tip, $12 for 34 ounces of latte is arguably a great deal.
Over the past several days, the share prices of three companies have surged 25% or more in a single trading session. Those companies are Krispy Kreme, GoPro, and Kohls. Yet none of these firms have made any major announcements of late that support such lofty rises in their stock prices. So why are their share prices skyrocketing?
It looks like meme stock mania is back.
What is a meme stock?
The term meme stock first gained popularity during the early pandemic years. During the 2020-2021 period, many people were confined indoors due to lockdowns or a general fear of going out, so they turned to the internet to pass the time, often taking on new digital hobbies or joining new communities.
For many, a new hobby emerged: online investing. As a result, many of these new investors turned to social media for advice on which stocks to buy.
Perhaps the most popular social media community for stock advice was the Reddit forum r/wallstreetbets, and it is in this community where many consider meme stock mania to have originated.
A meme stock is generally defined as a stock that is promoted by members of an online community, such as the one found in the r/wallstreetbets subreddit.
Proponents of a meme stock buy shares of a stock at a low priceoften in struggling companies with some brand name awarenessand then promote it, attempting to build hype and a positive narrative about the stock, as noted by Investopedia.
The goal is to get in on the meme stock while the price is low, see the value surge as more people who are afraid of missing out on a 10x or 100x bagger buy into the stock, and then often to get out of the stock before the hype collapses and the shares crash again.
As Reuters points out, meme stocks are often heavily shorted. The rise in share prices for these stocks force investors who had bet against the stock to sell their shares to limit their losses.
In the early pandemic years, two of the most popular meme stocks were the struggling video game retailer GameStop Corp. (NYSE: GME) and movie theater chain AMC Entertainment Holdings, Inc. (NYSE: AMC).
But now, as of this week, theres a new trio of meme stocks sending a frenzy through online trading communities.
Krispy Kreme
Probably the most well-known meme stock among the new trio is Krispy Kreme (Nasdaq: DNUT), the donut company that loves giving away tasty treats. Over the past day or so, people have been talking up DNUT stock on social media, and as a result, Krispy Kreme shares have surged.
Yesterday, Krispy Kremes stock price jumped a staggering 26% in a single trading session. DNUT stock went up 87 cents per share to close at $4.13.
And today the stock is surging again in premarket trading, as of the time of this writing. DNUT shares are currently up another 25%.
GoPro
Another moderately well-known brand name is also the newest meme stock. GoPro, Inc. (Nasdaq: GPRO), maker of the tiny portable cameras that are popular with extreme sports enthusiasts, saw its shares blast off yesterday.
In Tuesdays trading session, GPRO shares leaped an asounting 41%. The companys stock price went up 39 cents per share to $1.37 by market close.
And today, GPRO stock is trending even higher. As of the time of this writing, in premarket trading, GoPro shares are up another 56% to $2.14 per share.
Kohls
The third meme stock in this latest trinity is Kohl’s Corporation (NYSE: KSS). The clothing retailers shares jumped a massive 37% yesterday in a single trading session. During the period, KSS shares climbed $3.92 to $14.34. The volatility led to trading being temporarily halted, as CNBC reported.
But as of premarket trading this morning, KSS shares arent having continued gains. The stock is currently trading flat in premarket, according to data from Yahoo Finance.
Fast Company reached out to Krispy Kreme, GoPro, and Kohl’s for comment.
A cautionary tale
Its hard not to see single-day gains of 25% to 50% in a stock and not feel the urge to buy in. However, most financial advisors would advise against buying into a meme stock as they are considered a relatively high-risk investment.
Thats because meme stocks see their prices surge due to the hype online communities build up around that stock, not due to any firm fundamentals of the company itself. This online hype often leads many to buy into the stock, causing its price to surge.
But if the fundamentals of a company do not support the stocks price, the stock will most likely crash, and investors who got in at the wrong time could see their entire investment washed away.
Take one of the most popular meme stocks in history, for example. People went crazy for AMC Entertainment Holdings, Inc. (NYSE: AMC) in December 2020. That month, the stock was trading for around a low of $20, according to Yahoo Finance data. But then meme mania bit, and by June 2021, AMC shares were over $566 each.
Yet by the next month, AMC shares had declined to $370 apiece, and by December 2021, they were in the low $40s. As of yesterdays close, AMC shares are worth $3.50 each.
The lesson here is that meme stocks can surge in price rapidly, but they can fall just as rapidly, too.
Tesla is likely to post its biggest drop in quarterly revenue in more than a decade on Wednesday, as the EV maker grapples with issues including increased competition, a lack of new models and consumer backlash against CEO Elon Musk.
Here are the top five issues investors, analysts and Tesla fans are watching closely.
WILL MUSK BE DISTRACTED BY POLITICS?
Musk formed a new U.S. political party, the America Party, earlier this month, after a public feud with President Donald Trump over a tax-cut and spending bill. Three months ago, when he was still allied with Trump, Musk said he was pulling back from working in the president’s administration. Founding the party has rekindled worries that Musk will be distracted from business as it faces mounting competition, especially in its key China market, and as he tries to turn Tesla into a robotics and AI company.
Musk said on Sunday that he was back to working seven days a week and sleeping in the office when his small children were away.
HOW FAST CAN ROBOTAXI SERVICES EXPAND?
Last month, Tesla launched a small trial of its self-driving taxi service in Austin, Texas, with roughly a dozen of its Model Y SUVs and several restrictions, including safety supervisors in front passenger seats. Tesla enthusiasts lauded the efforts, although videos showed some driving mistakes.
Musk has said the service would reach the San Francisco Bay Area “in a month or two,” depending on regulatory approvals, but Tesla has not applied for necessary permits to test or deploy driverless vehicles, regulators in California told Reuters this month. Investors will want to know how the expansion can go forward.
WHERE IS THE CHEAPER TESLA?
When Musk shifted his focus to robotaxis, he cancelled plans to build a new, cheaper EV platform. Tesla had promised to start producing the first of more affordable EV models by the end of June, but the company has not yet confirmed if it has met that target. Investors are keen for an update on those plans. Sources had told Reuters in April that a stripped-down version of the Model Y was likely to be delayed by months.
Analysts have already cut their 2025 delivery estimate for the cheaper car to below 50,000 vehicles, from 63,500 at the start of the year, according to eight of them polled by Visible Alpha.
CAN THE MODEL Y REFRESH BOOST SALES?
Tesla rolled out a refreshed version of the Model Y this year, a move investors hoped would recharge flagging sales. Deliveries of the SUV and its Model 3 compact sedan Tesla’s volume drivers plunged in the second quarter.
While Tesla blamed a January production pause to retool plants, some analysts have said the re-styling including new front and rear light bars and a touchscreen for back-seat passengers was not enough to boost demand. Investors will want to know Musk’s view of the rollout to date and going forward.
With total deliveries falling 13.5% to 384,122 units in the second quarter, the second straight quarterly decline, revenue is expected to fall 11.2% year-on-year, despite aggressive discounting and low-cost financing.
HOW SOON WILL REGULATORY CREDITS DWINDLE?
Sales of regulatory credits a silent profit engine for Tesla are set to dry up after recent legislation. Tesla earned $2.8 billion in 2024 from such credits sold to legacy automakers to help them comply with emissions rules. Without them, the company would have reported a loss in the first quarter of this year.
Analysts expect pressure on Tesla and they are already resetting their revenue estimates for the year.
Akash Sriram and Abhirup Roy, Reuters
